A/N: Everything belongs to SM. Somebody I am not and never want to be. But I love because she needs to feel beloved.

I dont really know what to say. I've gone for a year exactly. people who started to read this fic once never failed to inspire me to come back. A lot has happened in the meantime and my life is changed forever. But I do want to finish what I had started. So tell me, would you read this, If I write more? Be honest.

#THIS IS ONLY A TEASER OF THE ORIGINAL CHAPTER. I will post the real thing If see that there are enough of you who want to waste your time over this crap. If not then I'll post the epilogue and get the hell outta your lives.

Bullets and black roses

Chapter 9: Ebony, Snow and Blood

BPOV:

I was standing in front of huge rusty iron gates like the ones you see only in horror movies. I felt the wind, so unpleasantly frosty that it was freezing my insides. I looked down at myself and only made out the white ballerina shoes on my feet, laces of which were entangled with each other like sea weeds making love underwater. I wanted to move forward but I couldn't. Both of my fists were closed around something cold and metallic. I opened them and found one silver coin stationed on each palm, emanating a silver glow underneath the moonlight. I didn't know why they were where they were, but closed my fists tightly again, holding onto them like my life depended on them.

The gates creaked and started to open slowly…. So painfully slow that I had the insane craving to go and push it wide open myself. But my feet were tied. My heart raced with excitement mixed with fear of the unknown while I waited to see what is on the other side. But they were moving inch by inch revealing only more darkness.

I waited and I waited…. To see something …anything…any fucking thing! But darkness was my only host. I sighed and my shoulders hunched with an engulfing sense of disappointment.

And then I felt it. I felt the electricity that hovered in the air whenever he was near. I felt him. I felt his presence. My eyes searched for his beautiful face but I couldn't see him. "Where are you, Ed…" I tried to scream my words but his name was left strangled in my throat as a hand covered my mouth from behind.

"Shhhhh!" he whispered in my ear and his breath tickled down my neck.

"Keep your silence, Bella" he moved my hair to caress his lips from the hollow of my ear to the crook of my neck "…or he will hear us" he mouthed against my skin.

"Who will?" I asked "who will hear us Edward?" what was he talking about?

"Him" he pointed at a human silhouette that was standing on the other side of the gates, faraway. I could see his face. All I could make out from this distance was his shadow. He was standing looking down at his hands. Other shadows surrounded him from both sides but the straight path him was deserted. He looked lonely even from far, even when he was is crowd of outlines.

"Who is he, Edward?" I asked him again. But he didn't answer me. Instead he turned my body around and knelt down in front of me. He touched my thighs and his hands moved down to the back of my calves. As soon as his fingers stoked the silk laces that kept my feet together, they began to untangle on their own. I stepped out of them, happy to feel the frosty ground with my bare feet.

He looked up at me, green eyes burning with an emotion that was unfathomable to me. "Whats wrong?" I requested him with my own eyes, holding my gaze. But he jumped when I tried to touch him, he grabbed my elbows and tuned to around so I was facing the unknown man again.

"Go to him, Bella" he nudged me with his smooth velvet voice. "Go liberate yourself again and come back to me"

He whispered and let go of me. "Don't turn around till you are free, Bella. Don't let him win" his voice was fading slowly as he moved back.

"I am sorry Bella but I can't fight alone anymore. Only you can help me. Only you can defeat him. I do not have an eternity but I will wait for you as long as I can. I will wait for you till my last breath, till he destroys me completely"

"I am waiting for you, Bella. I am waiting for you to come find me afterwards" and with those words I felt his absence.

I was angry, fuming and raged. How dare he create this distance between me and Edward! I stalked forward, brushing past the rustic gates. I walked and walked but the path seemed to stretch itself with each step I took towards him. And he stood there, under a dead, twisted and evil looking tree, beckoning me closer with his hands.

It seemed like the world has evacuated all its inhabitants for us, for this face-off between me and him. All the other shadows vanished somewhere and it was just me and him. I could finally see him a bit more clearly. He was tall and dressed in all ebony. I couldn't see his face yet though he moved forward. It looked as if he wanted to meet me half way. Well, it's about fucking time! Untainted hatred for him filled my lungs and made it hard for me to breathe.

And finally, when we were at a touching distance I looked upto him and gasped. He was Edward. Edward Cullen. How could this be? I looked back, trying to see the person I just left behind but only to observe more dimness.

"You will never see him again" He looked at me with dark jade eyes, his disheveled bronze hair swayed lightly with the wind and I cringed inwardly, all my anger and courage, replacing with doubt and fear. He looked different than my Edward. The new glint in his eyes seemed conniving, almost demonic.

"He is weak. He is pathetic. He is a coward" He gave me a devious smile as he took a step forwards and closed his fingers around my fisted hands. I don't know how it happened but the coins in my fists were getting hotter. They were burning my palms. I wanted lets go of them but his fingers were iron clad. I winced and pleaded, twisting in pain as the burning sensation grew even stronger. But he stood there smiling at my aching self; my pain was giving him satisfaction. He was enjoying it. He was enjoying it very much indeed.

"No! you can't take him away from me" I screamed with all my might. "let me go! He is waiting for me! I have to go!"

"He's no good for you, Isabella. How do expect him to protect you when couldn't even protect himself." He inclined his head towards his right and suddenly I noticed that there was someone there kneeling with his head down and his hands behind his back.

"Edward!" I called. But he didn't move.

"Edward, look at me! I am here" He kept looking down.

"Do you see how pitiable he is?" Dark Edward sneered beside me "he can't even look you in the eyes" he shifted his hands in a way that my arms were twisted behind me now, still fisting the scorching metals in my hands "Do you see how he can't even face you?"

"Edward!" I called the kneeling figure again. But he was as immobile as a marble statue.

"He is much too of a coward to reply you, Isabella. You don't need him" dark Edward moved behind me, grabbing my jaw and fisting my hair "But I am going to give that piece slime another chance. Just for you. But you have do what I say" he whispered against my ear.

"Anything. Anything!" I whispered back hoarsely.

"Fine" he said and vanished from my sight only to appear a few feet in front of me near the kneeling man.

"let's play a game" he smiled wickedly, yanking my Edward's head up by his hair while his other hand produced an apple out of thin air and placed it on top of his head. My Edward was silent as he eyes darted to mine, full of hope. I was horrified at the site, my stomach churned and I wanted to throw up. I felt disgusted looking at him, so broken, so vulnerable. I wanted to go and knock the damn apple off his head and hug him. Make him get up on his feet. But dark Edward was once again at my side holding me there. He reached into his coat and fished out a gun.
"But you have pay first if you want to play" and though he didn't say what the price was, I knew he was asking for the coins I held. I offered my palms to him and he took them one by one, a kiss replacing the spot where they sat all this time. As soon as his lips touched my skin the burn marks disappeared. I held my breath, waiting for him to hand me what I needed to save the Edward I wanted to be with.

"Shoot the apple. You two can have each other only if you make it."

He sneered again "but If you miss, you will be mine" I shuddered at those last words. I pointed the gun trying to fix my target but my hands shook so much I could barely tell what I was aiming at. I tried not to look directly at the Edwards. Any of them.

I took a deep breath. I was about to pull the trigger when Edward in front of me turned into a replica myself. She looked at me with sad brown eyes, full of pity. As if I am the one who deserves sympathy here. I couldn't take it anymore.

I fired.

And then nothing.

I woke up. I didn't scram, I didn't panic. I wasn't sweaty or red-faced like the other times I wake up from a nightmare. I knew I was dreaming all alone. Could I call it a nightmare?

Well, nightmare or not it was most bizarre thing I've ever seen subconsciously.

Dark Edward?

My Edward?

Only I can dream about this kind of madness. It is damned official. I have completely lost my fucking mind.

I shook my head, letting out a huge sigh. I still kept my eyes closed though. Not ready to face all of it yet.

"Fuck this" I exclaimed loudly, a bit too loudly for my preference at that moment.

"Fuck what exactly?" his voice flowed smoothly, like orange juice. No pulp.

I finally decided it was time to open my goddamn eyes. And the flame returned. My limbs burned and my head felt heavy. And to make matters worse, my eyes weren't very adaptive to light today.

Good. If it puts me off from looking right at him for a bit longer then its good. Very good. For me.

"And if by 'fuck this' you mean what I think you mean then you can just forget about it" he mused, exhaling slowly.

I felt him shift the bed beside me, moving his arm and to my surprise my wrist moved involuntarily with his tug.

"We are handcuffed together, Isabella"

You know the drill ~ Sabrina